The purpose of this blog is to write about the politics of Congress in the age of Obama, following bills through Congressional action, explaining why things are and are not getting done, analyzing Congressional votes and handicapping political races and such. I bring to this blog a creepy knowledge of parliamentary procedure.

Friday, August 14, 2009

The Daily Strike-8/14/09-Anger and Hope (With Some Radical Ideas from The Big Picture)

Good evening and welcome to the Daily Strike. Enjoy one of the most bipolar entries we'll ever write.

HEALTH CARE: I went back and forth today from being very angry, to more hopeful about the prospect of health reform. I wake up this morning to see that Americans will not get compensated for end-of-life counseling because of what Sarah Palin wrote on her Facebook profile. Because she pedaled a lie about death panels, millions of Americans will now be forced to pay out of pocket to talk to their doctor about the painful decisions we all have to face when we are at the twilight years of our life. The official word came from Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who is an intellectually dishonest jerk. Despite the fact that Grassley previously supported end-of-life counseling, he exploited the issue the other day by suggesting that seniors should be scared that the government will "pull the plug on grandma." The Big Picture commented on both the absurdity of Grassley's statement, and how insane it is that we're making public policy worse because of what a pea-brained Sarah Palin wrote on Facebook:

I despise Grassley so much. At this point he more than any other single person is responsible for problems with health care reformThe end-of-life stuff, God it makes me so angry and depressed and just generally disillusioned. Read the New York Times article on it. It's so distressing. How will anything EVER get done if these big lies just dominate the debate. It is so insane to me that that DISGUSTING Sarah Palin Facebook post will now lead to there not being coverage of end-of-life counseling. Think about that. Think about what that means for getting anything done, ever. As despicable a figure as Sarah Palin, as big an idiot as Sarah Palin, who is regarded by the majority of Americans as an idiot, she makes a charge so outlandish that just repeating it is like comedy... and then she wins!

The loss of that provision gave us the sinking feeling that Democrats were just not playing tough enough. We're fighting against so much power: the industry that wants to protect the status quo, a nihilistic Republican Party, and a lot of people who are angry and disillusioned with government to the point that they might do something violent. The Big Picture had some, umm, interesting ideas on how to confront these people in a series of questionable emails this morning:

The thing is, though, that this is politics. It's blood-sport. It's to-the-death. Krugman with a great column on it, concluding by saying, "How will Obama respond?" You can't lose your cool, and yet you've got to play HARDBALL, play to WIN. One thing that makes me confident is Obama's tremendous persistence and perseverance. He's not going to give in. He's going to keep pushing and pushing and pushing and hopefully they'll crack. But you've got to play HARDBALL...

...If they're really SERIOUS about winning, you need to start - and not Obama but others - to viciously undermine the other side, as we did with Clinton, with McCain, with Palin, even with Bush. A fair amount of the attacks on them were unfair and below-the-belt and exaggerated. I mean, was it entirely fair to pound home McCain's "fundamentals of the economy are strong" statement, and to implicitly blame McCain for the economic crisis? Was it fair to cast all that blame on Bush for Katrina? Probably not. But we did it, and that's how we won. Time to really GO AFTER them, drum up wild charges, blackmail them, rough 'em up. The White House is a pretty powerful office. The U.S. Congress is pretty powerful. There's a lot of things we could do ... start some FBI investigations...do a little IRS auditing...haul people before congressional committees...use the FCC to do some things...plant some evidence on these right-wing leaders, some sting operations, arrest them for drugs and prostitution...PLAY TO WIN!...

...The key is to mix this low-road politics with an uplifting Obama message packed with emotional appeal, how this is going to improve people's lives, restore hope, deliver change, how this time it's different, America a nation of Yes We Can...

...Right now he's caught in this middle road where there's neither the stirring emotional appeal to rally the base and sway the impressionable middle, nor is there the low-road, pure power approach to truly undercut the opposition...

...And the guys behind the low road effort should be Rahm Emanuel, James Carville, and Paul Begala. Carville and Begala did a very effective job mixing Bill Clinton's "Man from Hope" uplifting message with some frankly unfair and vicious attacks on George H.W. Bush, a lot of turning meaningless things into huge issues, a lot of ad hominem attacks on Bush's background and personality. Meanwhile Rahm should be masterminding an effort, probably in concert with Pelosi, Waxman, Leahy, as well as Eric Holder from Justice and Janet Napolitano from Homeland Security, to really kick some ass, make people PAY for their opposition. As in, loss of livelihood, loss of reputation, loss of freedom, for starters...

...I'm concerned that we aren't actually playing to win, that they don't know what it really takes to get this kind of thing done, that they're too bound up in protocol and too worried about being criticized for their tactics. The only person in this whole thing who would suffer from a criticism of tactics is Obama. So as long as he's not the one doing the vicious attacks, calling people before committees, investigating them - then it doesn't matter if Waxman or Holder get some blowback. But I wonder if these people are ready to risk their reputations, risk their cozy positions and nice relationships, to really tear down the media and the opposition, which is what has to happen. I'll be disappointed if we haven't imprisoned and blacklisted the conservative movement during this fall...

...Let's make it as simple as possible - just tie them up by hauling them before Congress, subpoenaing them, throwing them in prison. You start investigating taxes, throwing them in prison for tax evasion. You plant some drugs. You plant them with prostitutes - I think some nefarious gay sex scandals against Limbaugh and Beck and Charles Grassley and Mitch McConnell could really work some wonders. Start peddling some nasty rumors about Betsy McCaughey. There's also a lot of threats you can start to make to people, to their families...I mean, Obama is the commander in chief, he's in charge of the army, the FBI, the IRS, the CIA. This isn't only to win the health care debate, it's also to dissuade these dark forces from opposing him on the next series of issues. Because otherwise they are clearly going to derail his entire agenda and drive this country into the ditch...

Perhaps The Big Picture might be facing Secretary Napolitano or a Congressional subpoena himself after this entry. The Strike does not endorse these Machiavellian and Nixonian views, but he does share the frustration.

But anger gave way to some hope in the afternoon. President Obama gave a very strong town hall meeting performance in Bozeman, Montana. There were no crowd outbursts (like we've seen at town hall meetings across the country), and the President was in full command, making convincing cases for the public option, delivery system reform and insurance market reforms. He faced some tough questions from an NRA member who asked about tax increases (a reasonable question) and someone who works in the insurance industry, but for the most part, the crowd was friendly, supportive and well-informed. The President's new found focus on changing the evil practices of the insurance industry is a lot better than his previous focus on "bending the cost curve." People see the insurance industry abuses all the time in their everyday lives, and it is a solution that taps into the populist anger we're seeing across the country. He complimented his commanding performance by giving constant shout outs to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT), saying that he is "committed to getting this bill done." It is a two pronged strategy to regain control of the debate on health care and keep pressure on key lawmakers. Not exactly The Big Picture's Play to Win strategy, but I think it can help turn the tide in the fight to enact health reform.

I was even more inspired this afternoon when I was watching a clip from a town hall meeting with Arkansas Rep. Mike Ross, a key centrist Democrat and member of the Blue Dog Coalition. Ross was mostly getting questions from angry, impassioned right-wingers about government takeovers and this and that. Then a tall, lanky man with a deep Southern accent came to the microphone. He noted that while Ross' district has high unemployment, a high rate of people who are uninsured, and massive poverty, the Congressman bragged about holding the health care reform bill hostage. At the same time, he said, Ross took millions of dollars in contributions from the health care industry. The man quoted Martin Luther King Jr., who said that "justice deferred is justice denied" and that Ross shouldn't sell out the needs of his constituents. It was incredibly uplifting to see someone in such a conservative district standing up for our side. It gives me hope that there are enough people out there who understand how important it is to get this done. I'll try to post the video if it shows up on YouTube.

Ugh. As I was about to post this entry, I read that Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND) won't support the public option, and he gave no good reason for it. Yes, it was a day of anger and hope.